Sketch
by Bloodstained Comma
Summary: Emi leaves her father to live with her older brother, a Kira case investigator. With her skill at drawing and a newfound natural profiling talent, she could be a big help with the investigation... if she wants to help, that is. AU story.
1. Leaving

_Disclaimer!!  
I don't own anyone or anything except my original characters and ideas.  
Me just likes Death Note, and I will continue to write infinite fanfics of it and occasionally post a decent one up on the site._

* * *

Emi threw her backpack down on the floor as she walked through the front door of her house. Her father had started in on her the second she came in. He had been driving her insane since she was eleven, and she was dead tired of it all. A simple "Where have you been?" was all it took to set off a raging argument between the two of them anymore. It was getting bad between them and she needed to do something about it.

"So?" he asked her from the couch. "Where were you?"

"I missed the bus and I had to walk," she said shortly. This wasn't a lie at all, but he was bound to think it was.

"Oh, is that right?" he said. "You expect me to believe you weren't out smoking behind the school again?"

"Yeah," she said. "I expect you to believe it. I'm only five minutes later than usual. That was one time, and it hasn't happened ever since then."

"Only because you haven't gotten caught."

Emi sat down on the chair in the living room next to where she had tossed her backpack.

"Right," she said, trying to keep her voice calm as she reached over the side of the chair and opened her backpack. "I haven't gotten caught again."

She pulled a drawing pad out of her backpack and took a mechanical pencil from behind her ear. She opened to a blank page. The second the tip of her pencil hit the paper, she broke it in frustration from the sound of her father's voice scolding her again. She made a frustrated noise under her breath and pressed the end of the eraser to bring more lead out of the tip.

"You admit that you've been smoking then?"

"Yeah," she said vaguely. "I've also been stealing your cigarettes when I don't have money to buy my own. That could be avoided if you hid them a little better."

"I can't _believe_ this," he said, standing up. "I raised you better than to _steal_! Your brother never stole anything from me, he made good grades, he didn't _smoke_. Now look at him! He's got a good job and his own house. Your _art_ isn't going to get you anywhere."

"Well," Emi said airily, poking one of the spikes on her bracelet boredly, "it'll get me further than anything you ever did got you. You're living off of government money. I'm going to take a guess and say me and my brother took more after our mother's side of the family. Or are you just the black sheep of your family?"

She knew she was making him more inflamed by the second. She was tired of trying to avoid arguments lately; she knew he would find something to get onto her about one way or another. If she didn't start beforehand, she would be the one to end up seething mad about something that didn't even make much sense. So, she preferred it this way. At least she did until he took her drawing book from her and threw it on the floor.

"Stop joking around!" he yelled at her. "You're in your last year of high school, and you haven't put any thought into what you're going to do with your life, have you? Huh? Your brother knew what he wanted to do from the time he was fifteen! You still don't!"

"Nope, I don't. I'll figure it out," she said, reaching around him to pick up her sketches. He grabbed her arm. She glared up at him. "Let go of my arm."

"No," he said. "Not until you admit that you know you aren't getting anywhere with this stupid art thing. It's just a crutch for you to hold onto until you get out of high school."

"Let _go_ of my arm," she said crossly, wrenching her arm from his grip. "You got like this the _second_ my brother left. I've had to listen to you complain at me since I was eleven and I'm tired of it! I'm _seventeen_. I'm going to do what I want whether you like it or not. And you know what?" She stood up on the chair, making her a bit taller than him. "I want to leave right now, so I'm going to!"

She stepped off of the couch and nearly tripped over her boots. She picked up her drawings.

"Where do you think you're going to go?" he demanded as she picked up her back pack.

"Why should I tell _you_?" she asked.

She went across the living room and up the stairs to her room. She tossed her bag against the wall with her drawings and went to her closet. She changed out of her school clothes and into a regular outfit of hers. She pulled out a larger bag from the closet after. She stuffed her clothing and small amounts of make-up into it, as well as the money she had been saving for a couple years in case she decided to leave. She sat on her bed with the bag for a moment, looking around her room. It wasn't the nicest room in the world, that was definite, but she had grown up in it. Her father was right about one thing: she didn't know where she could go. She knew she would have to think of somewhere if she wanted to leave. She definitely did want to leave; she couldn't stand to even look at that man downstairs that called himself her father anymore.

It may have been her nature more than anything, but she hated being ordered around. Emi was addicted to cigarettes and art. She couldn't help that. Her father was twice as bad a chain smoker as she was. She got to the point where she was so used to the smell of smoke that it was hard to go on all day without it. The only solution she saw was to start smoking herself. Her brother, Touta, he had been lucky not to have picked that up from their dad before he left. Compared to her, he was definitely a saint. He would have been the goofiest saint she had ever known of in her life, but she was like the anti-Christ of their family compared to him. She was the kid in the chains and the spikes who adored black eyeliner and black clothing. She was kind to anyone who got on her good side, sure, but those who got on her bad side regretted it. She was the classic image of a rebel.

As she thought, staring at the wall across from her bed, it hit her. Couldn't she go live with her brother? His house had two bedrooms, and he was living there all alone. He probably wouldn't be as controlling as their father. He might not believe Emi if she told him why she had left, though. Their father had only gotten like this ever since he left. He used to be an okay parent before that. She sighed as she wondered if he would let her stay there. If she had to, she would just sleep on the couch. She looked up at the wall next to her bed, still thinking.

_Well_, she thought as she stood on the bed and undid a tack from the wall that she had her favorite dagger hanging by, _we basically get along. I don't think he would mind too much. I know he's working on a really important case of some kind right now for the police, but that should be even more reason for him to agree to it. He wouldn't have to put up with me all the time, and I could cook and stuff. I know how to cook quite well, so he wouldn't have to worry about that, either. I could also get a job and offer to help with bills and taxes and whatnot…. I don't think he would mind. It's either stay with him or live on the side of the road._

Her door opened as she got her dagger off of the wall. Without thinking, she immediately took it out of its sheathe and pointed it at her father.

"You keep away from me!" she yelled at him.

"Don't you point that thing at me, I can call the cops on you," he yelled back. "You're an ungrateful little brat!"

"So I'm going to leave," she said, putting her dagger back in its sheathe and getting over her momentary lack of judgment. "I'm going to leave you with no one to be ungrateful or grateful to you. Then you can live your life however the hell you want to and not have to worry about some ungrateful little bitch getting in your way."

"You watch your language!"

"I'll watch my language when I damn well feel like watching it," she said, jumping off of her bed. She put her dagger in her bag, picked up her school bag and her sketchbook, and walked up to him. "I'm leaving."

She walked around him, and he trailed after her.

"You don't _have_ anywhere to go."

"So I'll live on the side of the road. I don't care. Anything's better than this."

"No child of mine is going to live on the side of the road!"

"Fine!" she yelled. She walked quickly down the last few steps and across the living room to the door. She turned around and looked at him. "Then from now on, I'm not your child!"

She opened the door, walked out, and slammed it behind her. As she was at the end of the driveway, she heard him open it and yell after her.

"Fine then! Don't expect my door to be open to you anymore!"

"Whatever!"

Emi walked to the nearest bus stop. It was still early. It was doubtful that her brother would be out of work yet. Should she just wait for him at the police station…? Maybe it would be best to call him first. She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket with a lighter first. She lit one as she waited for the bus to show up, and then put the pack back in her pocket. She pulled out her cell phone next and found her brother on her list of contacts. She held the phone to her ear. After about five rings, he picked up.

"Yes?"

"Heey, Touta," she said with a nervous laugh. "You're at work, aren't you?"

"Yes," he said, "and in the middle of a really important meeting, if this isn't important then you'll have to call back later."

"When're you getting out?"

"Not until around seven thirty," he said. "Why?"

"Well, it's important…" she said slowly. "Will they let me wait at the front lobby at the station?"

"It's still almost four hours until then, why would you want to –"

"It's really, _really_ important," she interjected quickly. "I-it has to do with Dad?"

"Well… they shouldn't mind you waiting there," he said. "Just make sure you tell them why."

"Alright," she said. "Thanks. Get back to your meeting, it's really important. See you later."

She shut her phone, feeling quite nervous about waiting there. The receptionists at the front desk would probably think she was there to kill someone by the look of her. She had come to find that not many people trusted spiky teenagers like herself. Come to think, she had a dagger in one of her bags. _What if they insist on searching me?_ she wondered to herself as she saw the bus pulling up to the stop. _That won't be good. I should probably take off some of my chains and put them in the bag while I'm on the bus…_

She got on the bus and took a seat close to the back where no one else was really sitting. She commenced removing chains from her blue jeans and putting them in her bag. She also took off al of her spikes. She replaced her gauged earrings with hanging loop earrings for the time. She wiped off her eyeliner on a black shirt in the bag, then put it back on in smaller amounts in a small mirror. It looked nothing like her. That would be perfect for the station. Her blue jeans had a hole in one of the knees, but that wasn't too big of a deal. She was wearing a band t-shirt rather than a corset, so that was a big help. However, her boots… she untucked her pants from her boots so not to show them so much. It made them a little less noticeable.

As the bus pulled up to the stop closest to the police station, her heart pounded. If they searched her bag and found that dagger…. She wished she had thought about that a minute ago. What if she had to explain what happened with her father to the people at the front desk? _That_ would be a little embarrassing. She sighed as she got to the station, knowing that she couldn't do anything but wait and see what happened. If she just acted calm, she would probably be okay. She walked through the front doors. She slowly continued to the front desk. She attempted not to make eye contact with the receptionist.

"Can I help you, miss?" he asked.

"Umm, my brother works here," she said. "Matsuda Touta? I'm supposed to wait for him to get out of a meeting."

"That's… fine," he said a little offhandedly, noticing all of her bags. "Just have a seat somewhere. I believe Matsuda-san is in a meeting for the Kira case... that would mean he doesn't get off for a few hours."

"I know," she said. "He told me on the phone. B-but I didn't know if I was allowed to wait out here or not, soo… umm… I'll just go sit down somewhere."

She walked over to a bench-like seat against the wall. She brought her feet up and sat with her legs crisscrossed. She set her drawing pad down and opened it, taking her pencil out from behind her ear. Her heart became calmer to an extreme degree as the pencil's point touched the paper. The lobby was quiet and calm, and there was no one there to start any arguments with her about anything. This was the most peace she'd had since she was eleven years old. She was quite happy to be there. She was sure she could sit there drawing for the next few hours without growing overly bored. That was exactly what she did.

Emi didn't even notice it was seven thirty a few hours later, not until she saw that someone was standing over her. She looked at her watch, and then looked up at her brother. She waved at him with the sheepish expression of someone who was in huge trouble upon her face. He laughed.

"Are you in disguise or something?"

"S-sort of…"

Emi looked down at her bags without another word. He looked down at them as well, and then looked up at her suspiciously.

"What exactly did you need to talk about?" he asked slowly. "You said it was about Dad, right?"

"Yeah…" she said slowly, keeping her eyesight low. "About that. I just kind of… sort of left and he told me I couldn't go back."

"Y… you did what? Why?"

"We got into another argument. I just got tired of him always starting with me the second I get home from school, so I went and packed my things and told him I was leaving. And he yelled at me that I wasn't welcome to come back at any point in time ever again."

"That doesn't explain why you're in disguise," he said.

"Ah," she said with another nervous laugh. "See, I'd never leave my favorite knife hanging on my wall for him to go sell it on eBay or something, sooo…"

"So it's in one of the bags, right?"

"Yeah…" she said, smirking a little. "I figured if I came in here looking like… well, like me, then they'd want to search my bags and they'd find that and I'd get arrested for bringing a weapon into a police station, which would have just made my day even worse."

He scratched the back of his head. "You need somewhere to stay…" he said slowly.

"Basically, yes." She sighed. "I wanted to ask if I could maybe stay with you? I know your house has an extra bedroom. I'd stay out of the way, I'll even pay rent and help with bills and do all of the cleaning and stuff." She stopped for a second, then quickly added, "B-but if you don't want me to, I can probably find somewhere else, I was just wondering if… I mean, I don't particularly have any friends because of Dad, he chased them all off when he went psycho and decided he didn't like me anymore all of a sudden, but I can understand if you don't want me there, I'm not trying to be a burden or anything, I only –"

"_Alright_," he said. "First, calm down and take a breath, okay?" He crouched down in front of her. "Has he really gotten that bad?" he asked her quietly.

"He started on me today because I got home five minutes late," she said, nodding fervently. "I just missed the bus and had to walk, but he accused me of smoking out behind the school and started in on me about how I was never going to amount to anything and stuff, and so I told him that I was leaving and I went upstairs to get all of my things and –"

"Slow down," he cut in. "That was like a fifty word sentence, just take a second and calm down."

"But I don't have anywhere to live!" she said with wide eyes, waving her arms frantically. "I'm going to end up being a hobo on the side of the road selling drawings for money. He was _right_, I'm not ever going to amount to anything…"

"You _can_ stay with me," he said. "It's not –"

"Really??"

"Yes, really," he said. "It's not going to be permanent. If I could talk Dad into –"

"I'm never going near _him_ again," she said. "He's a stupid fu–"

"Alright," he said. "It still won't be permanent or anything. You can probably find a flat somewhere that you can afford, you'll have to get some sort of after school job, and there's plenty of room at my house."

"I'll pay rent and –"

"Don't worry about that right now," he said. "Just c'mon."

He stood back up. She grabbed her bags and did the same.

"So," she said as they walked towards the door. "The Kira case, huh?"

He tripped over his foot and stumbled into the door. "Wh-what're you talking about?" he said frantically. "I'm not working on _that_, I – I-I-I'm on another case…"

"The receptionist said you were working on the Kira case," she said. "Why keep it a secret? I wanna help! I think it's really interesting."

"That's why," he said with a sigh.

She crossed her arms. "I see, then. If I think it's interesting, I don't get to help, is that it?"

"No," he said. "Anyone working on the case is basically in danger of dropping dead of a heart attack at any moment."

"Well, of course," she said. "That's how Kira kills, ya know? If he finds out who's working on the case, they'll be in trouble. I think Kira's probably some spoiled teenager that gets everything he wants."

"Huh…" he said.

"What?"

"That's what L's basically been saying."


	2. Paper Bag

_For **disclaimer**, please see previous chapter._

* * *

Emi sat down on the recliner chair in the living room of her brother's house, looking around. It was a lot cleaner than their father's house, and the furniture didn't look thousands of years old on top of it. There weren't cobwebs in every corner of the room. The curtains weren't dusty. The hardwood flooring didn't have beer stains and cigarette burns all over it. It was really rather amazing to her that cleanliness of this sort existed. She had stopped cleaning her father's house shortly after he started criticizing her about it. She distinctly remembered telling him to "clean it himself or fuck off." She was still looking around the amazingly well kempt house when her brother sat down on the couch on the other side of the room.

"How did you come to that conclusion with Kira?" he asked her. "The one you mentioned back at the station."

"Easy," she said. "Take into account the initial times of the killing. Only when school wasn't taking place. A small child would be too afraid to kill. An adult would use such a power to heighten their own power. So, I'm going to guess it's probably someone from the age of sixteen to roughly twenty-five with a decent home life."

"Why a decent home life?"

"Well," she said, "for instance, if I had that power, I'd only use it to kill Dad. As was said on L's television broadcast: Kira is definitely immature. He also hates to loose, judging by what he did to Lind L. Taylor. On top of that…" she fumbled in her pocket for a moment and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, "… look at the cases of most serial killers all over the world." She took a cigarette out of the pack. "When they're caught, their old neighbors from when they were children are always like, 'Oh, he was so normal, how could this possibly be?' It's always the normal ones that grow up to be psychos, you know. The ones living in broken homes no how to take what life throws at them. The ones who grew up with perfect families, good grades, popularity in school, they always turn out odd. Granted, they might turn out rich, but they tend to be odd on top of it."

"That makes sense," he said as she lit her cigarette. "Why aren't you looking into law?"

"For a job?" she said. She shrugged. "Probably because I'm not interested in it. I wouldn't be very good at it, I don't think. I just want to go into art somehow. Maybe graphic design."

"You're really good with profiling, though," he said. He thought for a second, then sat up straight. "I have an idea," he said. "I think the officer in charge of the Kira investigation is going to ask L to show his face soon. It might not work, but if it does, I think you should try to profile what he looks like."

"How so?"

"With paper and pencil."

She looked at her sketchpad, which sat on top of her bags. She grinned.

"You know, your not as goofy as you appear all the time," she said, picking up her sketchpad. "Alright. I think I might just give it a shot. I'll have to finish it before you see him, though. Otherwise they'll think you just told me what he looks like, you know? I should probably get started on it… you have an ash tray?" she added vaguely.

"No," he said.

"Spare cup or something?" she asked. "I'll wash it out."

"Yeah," he said, standing up as she pulled her pencil out from behind her ear and began drawing.

"You know," she said to him as he opened one of the kitchen cupboards. He looked over from the small kitchen. "L is very immature."

"Wh-what??" he said, alarmed, nearly dropping the cup he was holding. "How do you say that with all of the unsolvable cases he's done in the past?? He's a genious!"

"Obviously," she said. "Immaturity doesn't indicate stupidity, you know." She took a long drag on her cigarette and exhaled the smoke in a few rings. "I mean, think about it. He won't help the police unless a case interests him. He looks at it almost as a game, it seems. He's determined to _win_ the case, not to _solve_ it, which is why he always manages to, you know?"

"Y… yeah… but to say he's _immature_…" he handed Emi the cup. She set it on the end table next to her and flicked a few ashes off the end of her cigarette into it. "That's pushing it a little, isn't it?"

"He's a sore loser," she said. "That indicates signs of immaturity, meaning he's probably around the same age as Kira, most likely a little older. Probably around your age, I think. Wouldn't have much time to go clothes shopping, obviously, so probably dresses pretty plain. With as much as he gets done in such a short time, he's probably a raving insomniac who stays awake on a permanent sugar-high and caffeine addiction. So, that would mean major eye bags…" She carefully drew a set of eyes with dark, dark circles under them onto the paper. "I'm talking eye bags that emo kids would be jealous of, here."

"That part makes sense," Tota said. "No one could get done that much work if they get any sleep, and that big of a lack of sleep would cause that."

"Let's see… messy hair, probably. Can't say the color or type, so I'm not doing that bit. I'd only know the eyes in this case. I couldn't even say accurately what his nationality might be. He's either Japanese or hides speech indicators that he isn't very well. Both are pretty likely, who knows? He'll be having a paper bag over his head instead of an actual head, but with eye holes cut out."

"R… right…" he said offhandedly.

He watched her hand draw a rectangle around his head. Beneath the eyes, she drew the letter 'L' in a fancy font on the bag, the same font that had been used. She laughed a little.

"That's just for a comical effect," she said. "Anyway. As I said. No time for fancy clothes. I'm going to assume some kind of t-shirt or sweat-shirt and blue jeans. He's probably rather thin as well, as who has time to eat proper meals when your solving insanely crazy murder cases?"

She drew a somewhat baggy white shirt, accompanied by baggy blue jeans and bare feet.

"If I were cooped up all day, I wouldn't be wearing shoes half the time, so that's just my opinion there," she said, pointing at the feet with an eraser. "I'll bet he's staying in a hotel right under our noses, too." She drew some randomly dispersed furniture in the background. "And there would be a monitoring station in case he needs to check security cams in different areas for Kira evidence…" She drew television sets in front of a coffee table that was piled with different sweets. "As I said," she added, pointing at the coffee table, "sugar-high is the way to go."

"That's really specific," he said, taking the sketchpad as she handed it to him. "This could be along the lines of being right."

"Good," she said. "Give it back."

"Here," he said, handing it to her. She quickly signed her name on it, tore the page out of the book, folded it into eighths, and handed it back. "Keep it with you for when you meet the real L for comparison. I want to know if I was right or wrong."

"If this is right," he said putting it in his pocket, "then they might agree to let you work on the case. The team might."

Emi laughed, putting her pencil behind her ear and closing her drawing pad. "I was only kidding before," she said. "I value my life. That's why I could never be a police officer. I'm afraid to risk my life in situations like this."

"Well," he said, "even if you don't show your face to the team, you could still help, right?"

"How's that been working out with L?" she said.

"Umm…"

"Making the team angry, isn't it? I would imagine it is. I wouldn't want to be working on a case this important with someone who wasn't willing to risk their neck. So, naturally, the team wouldn't want to work with me. L may show his face soon to a few for the sake of cooperation with the police. Me, I'd be too afraid to."

"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "So your profiling isn't going to help us much, then?"

"Not unless you desperately need my help," she said. "With L there, that is doubtful."

"With the conclusion you came to about Kira," he said, "you might be nearly as smart as L at the least, you know?"

"Nah," she said, shaking her head. She took another drag on her cigarette, burning it down to its filter. She dropped it in the cup next to her. "No one in the world is that smart."

He shrugged. "It was just a thought…" He yawned, looking at his watch. "I'm going to sleep. I've got to get to the station early tomorrow."

"It's the _weekend_," she said incredulously. "That's ridiculous."

"If all the cops had the weekends off, then the world would probably get blown up," he said.

"Kira scares criminals to death, though. Literally, so it seems."

He stopped at the hallway leading out of the living room and looked back at her. "You support Kira?"

"No," she said, sitting back in the chair. "If I ever met him in person, I'd kill him myself, in all honesty. However, crime rates are dropping dramatically. I'm only saying that most criminals are afraid to move now, regardless of the cops."

"That's true…" he said. "I pointed out a few weeks ago that crime has been dropping drastically since Kira started, and I just got looked at funny."

She laughed. "That's because you're a police officer and you're not supposed to say stuff like that in front of other police people."

"Yeah, I figured that out…"

"It's funny how Dad thinks you're the smart one," she said, shaking her head. "Go to sleep," she added. "I'm gonna hang out in here for a little while since there's no school tomorrow."

"Okay. Good night, sis."

"'Night," she said. "And thanks for letting me stay here."

He waved in aknowledgement before going into his room. Emi looked up at the ceiling boredly, still silently pondering over the lack of cobwebs in its corners. Back home, her curfew had been eight o' clock at night, and she had to have the lights out in her room by nine. She could stay up far later now, she was unsure of her curfew, and that lack of planning made her quite content. She liked cleanliness, but she disliked organization of everything. There were certain things that had to be organized and other things that were best left alone, in her opinion.

Emi found herself vaguely wondering if there was any chocolate in the house as she headed into the guest bedroom at around ten o' clock that night. She liked chocolate; that was a thought that randomly crossed her mind as she lay down on the surprisingly comfortable twin size bed. Chocolate and cigarettes; that was quite an interesting combination. It probably wouldn't taste that great together. A large, loud yawn ensued her random ponderings of chocolate cigarettes, causing her eyes to close. It was strange to be sleeping somewhere different for a change. She had been sleeping on the same bed her entire life. Now this sudden, drastic change had come to her life. Rather than bring further chaos to her, it brought a greater sense of peace. That was a nice thing, really.

She awoke the next morning to a strange ringing noise that seemed to be coming from her pants. She sat up immediately and looked down, only to find that she had fallen asleep with her clothes on the previous night. She reached down and tried to figure out what in the world was ringing. It then hit her quickly; her cell phone. She wrenched it out of her pocket and flipped it open without looking at the caller ID.

"Eh?" she said.

"Are you awake?"

"No," Emi said to her brother, perturbed. "I just answered my phone in my sleep."

"Good," he said. "Guess what?"

"What?" she asked irritably.

"Bad mood?"

"You woke me up."

"It's eleven o' clock, you needed to wake up. Anyway, I mentioned what you said about Kira to the team –"

"Did they laugh at you again?"

"No," he said. "That's what's awesome, that's one of the first things I've said that hasn't been laughed at. L even agreed!"

"L?"

"Computer," he explained. "So if I told them about L then –"

"Wait on that one," Emi said. "You'll regret it if you don't. If and when you first meet L, if he looks anything like the picture, then you can mention it."

"Okay…" he said, sounding a little disappointed. "Well, I'm only on a short break right now until chief gets back, so I've got to go. Oh, and Yag – I mean, the chief investigator on the case, just told everyone that whoever was afraid of risking their life on the case to leave the investigation and they'd just be transferred to a different case."

"Alright," she said, rubbing her eyes. "So?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you what you think," he said.

"It's your choice," Emi said, yawning. "Do you want to stay on the team?"

"Yeah," he said, "but it puts basically me and anyone I'm associated with in danger. Kira is most likely willing to kill anyone to get what he wants, so he might go after our friends and family, too. You should have a say in it."

"It's your job," she said. "You can stay on the case if you want to. I know it's important. I'm not worried. You've got to figure, if my theory's right, then might even be in school with Kira. So I risk my life just by learning every day." She laughed a little, bringing on another yawn. "Go on ahead and stay if you want to. You've gone this far, so you don't want to quit, right?"

"No," he said. "I don't want to. You just said last night that –"

"I know, but that would be risking my neck on the front line," she said. "This is your choice. Can you get that through your head?"

"Alright," he said, "I'm staying on the case, then. I'll be one of only six including the chief. Eight, though, if you include L and his representative."

"Okay," she said, "get back to your meeting before you're late. You don't want them to think you're quitting, do you?"

"Right," he said. "I'll see ya, then."

"Just let me know if you'll be late," she said. "Don't tell me if you're going to see L until you get home, though. It might piss off the team if you go telling random people. Bye."

She shut her phone, dropped it on the floor, and then fell back onto the comfortable bed, vaguely wondering if her own family was going to be among one of the first people to ever see L's face. It seemed L would never show his face. However, if it involved cooperation with the police… if they gave him the option of "Show us your face or we will not continue to give you our information," then he would be sure to agree with them, wouldn't he? It would be silly and childish to refuse even at that. He might have to give in to their demands if he required their trust. That would definitely be a major failure on L's part as far as his career in general went. However, it was important for this particular case to have face to face contact with those he was working with.

Emi would be completely amazed if that sketch she had drawn of L the previous night was even close to being right. If it was, then how would the investigation team take it? Would they kick her brother out of the case for telling her that he was part of the Kira investigation? He hadn't told her, it had been the receptionist. However, she doubted they would believe him. He was most likely the youngest investigator on the team, as he was only in his mid-twenties. Most investigators for cases like the Kira case were in their mid-thirties and up. That meant it was possible they wouldn't believe him. She would feel horribly guilty if he got kicked out of the hunt for Kira because of her. She didn't like the idea of him being in mortal peril, but that didn't mean she wanted to get him kicked out of this case. He wanted to be a part of the case, and she didn't want to have a say in it.

Emi sighed as she sat back up. She attempted to stand and managed to, swaying briefly in place before attempting to walk. She nearly tripped, as she had forgotten she was wearing boots. Those boots could have well been the death of her one day. Her first order of business for that morning – although she had slept most of it away – was to head into the kitchen. She needed to find something to eat. After opening all the cabinets in the kitchen, she realized what she wanted. She sat down in the middle of the kitchen floor glaring around at all the open cabinet doors and wondering what type of person could have absolutely no chocolate of any sort in their house. She shook her head, standing back up, and got a clean cup out. She shut all the cabinet doors. _I guess a cigarette will have to do for now…_ she thought to herself with a sigh as she reached into her pocket to pull out the squashed pack.


	3. No Smoking In Lobby

_Normal disclaimer: _

_Me owns no one or nothing cept original stuff._

_It's about twenty words short of the normal length I go to for stories (which is 3,000 words as I've mentioned in other storis), so sorry about that. I got a little tiny bit lazy._

* * *

Emi fell onto the couch with the television turned onto the news in the living room. She had just gotten a call from her brother stating that he was going to be very late. As he wasn't saying why, she could only assume one thing. Her assumption may have been far off from the truth, but she believed that L had agreed to meet the last few members of the Kira investigation team. That would definitely be interesting. She would certainly have to question him to death when he got home, for more than one reason. One, she _had_ to know if L was anything like her conclusion. Two, pestering her brother was amusing.

It was already close to midnight. She didn't _think_ that police working on particular cases, like Kira's, stayed on the job that late. She may have been wrong, but it was still awfully late for her not to have gotten another call. She smoked the cigarette between her index and middle finger downs to its filter before putting it out. She had headed to a store today to purchase an ash tray, as well as innumerable bars of chocolate to keep in stock. She grumbled random swears under her breath all morning at the fact that her brother had no chocolate, until she got the brilliant idea to go to the store and buy some herself. Now she was quite content.

It was five minutes after midnight when the front door finally opened. Emi managed to sit up on the couch. Her sugar buzz was beginning to wear off, and she was becoming physically tired, despite the fact that her mind was rambling at her. She stayed sitting up as her brother walked through the front door and, with a loud yawn, fell onto the chair by the door. She laughed at him.

"You're not sleeping yet," she said. "Did you –"

"I'm not allowed to say."

"If _you_ saw L, then it's _my_ business, too, you know. Because, see, the sketch I did, _I_ did that, and that means that I have to be allowed to know if you showed it to anyone for any reason, which means I would also have to know that reason."

"Have you been rehearsing this?" he asked her drowsily, holding his head up with his hand.

"No," she said, "not in the least. I only come up with stuff like that spontaneously. Now, did you?"

"Fine…" he said. "Yes."

"_Woo!_" she cheered, punching her fist in the air.

"You're not going to like this, though."

"I was all wrong, wasn't I?" she said, grinning. "Hey, I can't always be right."

"No, that's not it," he said. "You were exactly right. Except the paper bag, that part was a little off, and he didn't have a giant L on his face."

"Was I right about the sugar-caffeine thing, too?"

"Yes, actually." He yawned. "He looked like he hadn't slept since the Kira case started."

"Then why shouldn't I be happy?"

"Well," he said, "the team was so impressed that they want to know if you'll help if we need you to, and I know you said you didn't want to. I tried explaining to them that you're a high school student and you're at enough risk just going to a school that Kira might very well be at, and they agreed and everything, but…"

"But?"

"But then L went and pointed out that with Kira, everyone's life is on the line regardless of who they are."

"They _don't_ want me on the team," she said with a laugh. "Because I'd be of half a mind to smack L for pointing that out."

"Yeah," he said, "I told chief that and he told me to be serious. I said I was, but I don't think he believed me. So, now they would like to talk to you."

She grumbled under her breath, something about 'only seventeen' and 'not cool.' She then sighed and looked at her brother.

"They're just going to get pissed when I say no, or when they figure out that I only come in handy when I _feel_ like coming in handy."

"I tried telling them that, too."

"They should trust you on this. You've had to live with me half your life. Well, if they want to meet me, fine. They can meet me. But make _sure_ they all know that meeting with the team doesn't mean I'll end up working with them. Now, onto more important things," she said. "What was L like?" she asked eagerly.

He laughed. "_Weird_. Extremely smart, but weird. He narrowed down who Kira could be tremendously, though. He actually said the same thing you did."

"What?"

"That he's an immature sore loser. He said he knows exactly how Kira thinks because Kira is an immature sore loser, and he knows that because he is too. Weird, huh?"

"I can't believe how right I was. Age range?"

"Around what you said."

She smirked. "Shoes?"

"Nope."

"Knew it," she said, laughing. "No one in their right mind would wear shoes when they have to spend all their time indoors and out of the public's eye, you know? It would just be ridiculous. And _speaking_ of people being in and out of their right mind," she added, pointing at her brother. "What person _in_ their right mind doesn't have chocolate in their house?? I had to go out and buy some!"

"S… sorry?" he said, sounding confused. "I didn't know I was supposed to…"

"Yeah…" she said, "sure. Turned out to be a good thing, as I was able to buy an ashtray while I was out, too. So, continuing about L. These are the questions I rehearsed, by the way. Nationality?"

"Probably English," he said uncertainly. "It's hard to say exactly, though."

"That's no help…" she said with a sigh. "Now, did he act suspicious at all? Regarding your little sister who was somehow able to figure out exactly what he was like? This is important."

"Not really," he said, "but it's L, so you never know."

"Hmm. Alright."

"He said that it seemed like Kira was getting information from a source within the police, though," he said. "He questioned all of us and determined that none of us were Kira. You'll probably be questioned, too, but I think that's mandatory."

"Did he say that before or after you showed the team the sketch?"

"After."

She swore under her breath, biting her fingernail. "That's not good…"

"Why?"

"Because if I were L, then I would strongly be suspecting me to be Kira right about now. Who else would take the time to profile L, if not Kira? He probably wouldn't have mentioned the fact that it seemed Kira was getting his information from the police if he didn't suspect me…. The FBI agents that died…" she said slowly, looking up. "Does he know what order they died in?"

"They all died at the same time."

"_Crap_…" she said. "That's no good. It doesn't seem like they would be allowed to know who each other were, though, right?"

"S… sure?"

"Right," she said to herself. "Which means someone had to have gotten a document saying who was who. The FBI was following the police… the first person may have been under Kira's orders. Naturally, whoever that FBI agent was following and their families will be prime suspects. You'd best hope that whoever it was wasn't following you, because that would make some of the suspects me, you, and Dad. Me, being in high school and apparently someone with an interest in who L could be, would be at the top of the list. Who is the chief investigator?"

"I'm not supposed to say," he said slowly, "but I think you would be alright knowing, right?"

"Unless you think I'm Kira…" she said with a sigh.

"I don't think so," he said. "It's Yagami Soichiro."

"Alright," she said. "That means that if the agent was following him and _his_ family, his kids would be suspects. I'm in the same grade as his son, Light, and he would be more likely than his younger sister, Sayu. I'm not saying he seems like a psycho serial killer or anything, just that Sayu really doesn't seem like one."

"This is strange…" he said offhandedly, looking confused.

"What's strange?"

"You sound like L," he said. "You're reasoning the exact same way he does."

"A… am I?" she asked. "P… probably just because I'm tired…. I normally don't… that's just weird… I think…" she looked confused. "I'm not Kira, am I?"

"If Kira thought the same way L did, he would have known not to kill Lind L. Taylor."

"Yeah," she said, nodding. "Yeah. I think Kira is aware of his actions, anyway. Otherwise, the FBI agents wouldn't be dead. I think I need to sleep," she added, standing up. "I'm horribly confused now." She sighed. "This is exactly why I didn't want to get involved in the case. If I'm suspected as Kira, then that's almost as bad as being suspected _by_ Kira as working with L. Either way, my life is in danger. Oh well… looks like it's unavoidable. When am I supposed to meet them?"

"Ummm…" He reached into his pocket and took out a folded piece of paper, held shut with a piece of tape. He held it out. "L said the details were in there."

"Okay…" she said slowly, walked over. She took the paper from him. "He obviously didn't want you to read it," she added, examining the tape. "I'm going to bed. I'll read this before I go to sleep, though. 'Night."

She used her fingernail to cut the tape as she walked to the hallway. She opened her door as she unfolded the letter with one hands. She stood against her door to shut it once inside as she began reading.

_Matsuda Emi,  
The conclusions you came to about me through simple logic were very interesting.  
I have quite a few questions I would like to ask for your opinions on the Kira case. However, as I have considered the possibility that your brother might read this, I wish to speak with you in person rather than ask you on paper.  
I don't deny being suspicious of your identity. Anyone could be Kira, and you seem to fit the description well. You will be questioned both as a possible suspect and as someone who could be helpful to the investigation.  
If you agree to meet with the investigation team, then come to the Teito Hotel at noon on the day following your retrieval of this letter. As the team will be meeting every day from this point forward, I will ask Matsuda-san if he has given you the letter. I will check the hotel security at noon when he says he has. If you have not arrived, I will assume you aren't going to. Do not inform anyone of whether or not you will come here.  
If you bring any communication devices, please make sure you keep them turned off.  
L_

So, he did suspect her. That wasn't surprising at all, but it was still rather nerve-racking. She had to choose whether or not to meet him tomorrow…. She didn't know much at all about L, except for the conclusions she had made on her own. Not knowing anything about him made it all the more bothersome. She knew he was extremely smart, and she knew that he had every right to suspect her. She was just afraid that he would come to the conclusion that she was Kira in the process of suspecting her.

Emi folded the letter back into eighths and put it into her pocket. She lay down on her bed on her back, crossing her arms over her chest, puzzling over what sort of questions L had for her. Her mixed feelings of wonder and fear were sure to prevent her from sleeping. Sleep was the last thing on her mind. The rest of her life could be determined in the next twenty-four hours. Even if she had been able to sleep, that would have been sure to bring on some pretty insane nightmares.

* * *

It was 11:59 in the morning at the investigation headquarters. Naturally, the team was discussing the Kira case. At least, most of the team was. L was watching the hotel surveillance cameras silently. He had been doing this for thirty minutes, since he asked Matsuda whether or not he had delivered the letter to his sister as he had been asked to do. While they had said nothing, no one in the team couldn't help wondering is he was up to something. A glance at the surveillance at noon caused Matsuda to choke on the coffee he was drinking. He pointed at the screen, looking awfully confused.

"Emi?" he said uncertainly.

The team looked over in time to see a girl in her late teens with long black hair with a reddish tint to it walking into the hotel lobby. She had a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth and a small bag at her side. There were chains hanging off of the belt loops of her jeans and spikes sticking out from the front of her leather boots. After a quick look around, she immediately found herself being told off by a hotel worker for having a lit cigarette inside of the lobby. She blew smoke at him and commenced telling him off in return.

"Yes, that's definitely her," he said, his arm falling. "Wh… what was in that letter?"

"I instructed her to come here at noon the day after she received the letter," L said. "She is a potential suspect in the Kira case.

The whole team looked shocked, except Matsuda. "She said she thought you'd think that," he said resignedly with a sigh. "She also said she didn't want to be a part of the team, so I don't know why she showed up. Shouldn't someone go down there before she gets kicked out?" he added as she elbowed and then yelled at a hotel security guard who was obviously attempting to show her the way out.

"Go ahead, then," L said.

* * *

"I don't know who the hell you think you _are_," Emi said to the security guard, fuming. He looked very perplexed. "_I_ was instructed to come here by someone who is already here, I'm waiting for them. I thought this was supposed to be a five star hotel. The staff obviously isn't very welcoming. Let me tell you something –"

"Emi!"

"Eh?" She looked over her shoulder, saw her brother, and then looked back at the security guard. "Oh, and that's _right_, my _brother _here_ –_" She grabbed her brother's arm suddenly and pulled him over. "– is a _police officer_, I could have you arrested for harassment!"

"Come on!" her brother said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her away from the security guard. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes once out of the main lobby.

"This is a really nice hotel," she said, looking around. "I can see why it's five stars."

"Yeah," he said as they started up a flight of stairs. "Next time, just put out the cigarette."

"Well, if the people here weren't so _rude_ about it, then I would have…" She took another out of the pack and put the pack back in her pocket. She took out a lighter, lit it, and then also put the lighter in her pocket. "I don't get along with rude people, and that security guard grabbed my arm and tried to throw me out the door!"

"Just put out the cigarette if it happens again," he said exasperatedly. "There's a sign right outside the door that says 'No smoking in lobby.'"

"I didn't see it…" she said. "I wasn't paying any attention. Besides, who says I'm coming back again? I only came here today to make sure my name gets taken off the list of Kira suspects."

"You already knew you were a suspect??"

"It was in the letter," she said, stopping as her brother opened a door. "L seemed to think that there was a possibility that you might read it, so he didn't say very much about why I was being suspected or anything. I'm only here to get the finer details, and then I'm leaving. I don't plan on working for the team unless it's absolutely required."

"You will if it is required?"

"I'd be more apt to consider it then. But I don't think you'll need my help unless L isn't capable of helping anymore."

"What do you mean?" he said before opening the door they were standing at. "Why wouldn't L help?"

"I mean if L dies," she said. "I somehow doubt Kira wants him to stay living, which means he's at risk."

"So you'll only help if L _dies_?"

"Right. Only if I'm absolutely needed."


	4. Friend

_Disclaimer: Yo posseo nada, pero me gusta **Nota de la Muerta**._

_Hoorah for remembering something I learned from le clase de Espanol Uno :D_

_**Esto es un Poco Importante: **I've skipped the interrogation and slipped in the only needed details of it into this chapter. I started working on the interrogation, but I didn't like how it was turning out. Waaaaay too much dialogue, and it really wasn't needed to continue the story. Too much useless dialogue makes things boring, and I didn't want to do that._

_-On a much less important note, I like talking in Spanish at random moments.-_

_Anyway, here's the story._

* * *

Emi went outside to take a walk when she and her brother got home later. She was sure everyone on the team suspected her after that interrogation. That was the only reason L was insisting on her being in the team: so he could keep an eye on her actions and see if she was Kira. Even her brother had to suspect her. He was goofy, not stupid, and if he hadn't been reasonable enough to think that she was Kira, then he didn't deserve to be working in the Kira case. In truth, she hadn't left just the house just to "take a walk." She had left the house with her cell phone for a reason. She glared at it with disdain as she turned it back on, knowing the call that she was going to have to make. She wanted to throw it on the ground as she dialed the numbers, but she managed to refrain from doing so. She held the phone to her ear and listened to the most malevolent ringing she had ever heard in her life on the other line. A familiar voice answered, making her flinch a little.

"Yes?"

"It's done."

"You're on the investigation team?"

"Yes…"

"In direct contact with L."

"_Yes_. I said everything I was instructed to say. My brother is probably going to kick me out of the house now, as there's no doubt _he_ thinks I'm Kira, too, I alienated him to agree with L before I even spoke with L. I know L thinks I'm Kira, or he wouldn't have insisted on my being on the team. Happy?"

"You did good, yes."

"What do I have to do now?"

She shuddered in disgust at the laugh at the other end. That laugh used to be different, and it used to belong to her friend, her friend she had lived next door to her whole life. However, because she knew too much about Kira, the only use she had anymore was to be Kira's tool. It perturbed her, but she couldn't say anything about it. She knew she would be killed it she did.

"You're just as smart as me, I was sure you would have figured that out. You mean you don't know what you're going to have to do next?"

"No, that's not what I mean. I have a feeling I know, but I'd rather not die. If I act without orders, I'll be killed. _You_ should know _that_."

"Alright. Get L's real name."

"So you can kill him?"

"Right."

"I don't think so," Emi said with a laugh. She realized how bold of a statement this had been, but she couldn't stop herself once she had started. "I'm _not_ getting anyone killed. If you want his name, you can get it yourself and –"

"Then you want to die instead?"

"If you kill me," she said slowly, "I will no longer be the primary suspect."

"Yes. But you'll be _dead_."

"Yeah," she said. "And L will start suspecting I was working as some kind of a double agent rather than me actually being Kira, and Kira killed me when I became an inefficient spy. So, he'd look to see what people I know that could fit Kira's description. You'd be at the top of the list, Light."

"I'm willing to make that sacrifice. L is smart, he may suspect me eventually, anyway. The earlier he does, the sooner I can get rid of his suspicion. Still want to go against me?"

Emi stood against a street lamp's pole on the sidewalk, staring at the ground. Light had changed into an entirely different person in the past months since he had picked up that notebook off the ground outside school. They both thought it was a practical joke until he tested it. She had encouraged him to, as wondering if it could be real or not was only making him paranoid. She had been so sure that it wasn't real that she had talked him into writing a name on it. If she hadn't done that, he wouldn't have tested it again and come to the insane conclusion that he had been chosen to rid the world of evil. Emi had gone along with it out of fear and agreed with everything. However, when he killed Lind L. Taylor without knowing he was a criminal, she had came out and told him how much she opposed it. That was when he threatened her and began giving her orders. At this point, _he_ wasn't Light anymore. Kira had taken over entirely.

"No…" Emi said quietly. "I'll try to get his name."

"Good," he said. "Once you've gotten his name, tell me. I'll give you a piece of the Death Note and leave the last step in your hands, as I haven't seen his face. I know it could take a long time to gain his trust and get his name, but you're smart. You can probably do it. Thank you for all the help you've been."

_Like __**I**__ had any choice in the matter…_ Emi thought, rolling her eyes.

"To avoid suspicion, don't call again until you have found out his name. Also, just out of curiosity, what did you tell your brother to make _him_ suspicious? I've met him, and he doesn't seem overly bright."

Emi clenched her fist and refrained from going off. "I told him that I wouldn't work for the team unless L was killed by Kira, my reasoning being that they wouldn't need me unless he was killed. I agreed to work for the team in the end, though, since they were so persistent about it."

"Very good job."

"Yeah."

"If I need anything else, I will call you. Again, _don't_ call my number, as they will associate me with Kira immediately if you do."

"Right."

Emi shut her phone when the other line went dead. She started back towards her house, wondering what her brother would say to her when she returned. She had a feeling he would start questioning her. However, she hadn't considered the possibility that he would ask her the most obvious question the moment she walked through the door.

"I'm back," she said loudly as she walked into the living room.

Her brother looked back from the kitchen. She didn't bother looking up as she sat down on the chair nearest the door, nor did she bother when he sat down on the sofa. She kept her eyes to her knees, wondering when her second interrogation of the day – or first of this day, as it was after midnight – would begin. She didn't have to wait very long.

"You're not Kira, are you?" he asked after a moment.

Emi's heart stopped for a moment. She really hadn't been expecting that. That was the sort of direct question that L would ask, not her brother. Worst of all, she didn't know how to answer without incriminating herself or anyone else. It was her brother, though. It was her _family_. She had done enough lying, hadn't she? However, to tell the truth would be to put more than just her life in danger. She could answer indirectly…

"I might as well be," she said with a sigh. "I only said the things I said today to incriminate myself. I was fairly indiscreet about being suspicious, so L probably suspects me, right?"

"What are you…? Why would you want the team to think you're Kira??"

"I'd rather be executed by the law than be executed by Kira."

"What are you talking about? Kira doesn't know you're working for L, how could he…?"

"Don't think about it too much," she said. "Your life will be in danger if you figure it out. Just go along with the rest of the team and try to understand that I'm the main suspect. The rest of them know that L is never wrong, which means that I _have_ to be Kira by that logic. Once the evidence presents itself, I'll be sentenced to death and Kira will continue killing. Then everyone'll know."

"D… do you know something about Kira?"

"Can't say."

She looked down next to the chair. She picked up her bag from where she had dropped it earlier and took out her sketchpad. She took her pencil from where she always kept it, tucked behind her ear, and opened to a clean page. She touched the pencil to the paper, and she glanced up at her brother.

"Kira is immature, I can gather that much," she said with a sigh, looking back at the paper. "I mean to say, he's the type of person who would use anyone he has to in order to get what he wants. If someone knows too much, they become his tool. He's probably a high school or college student, and also quite smart, possibly smart enough to outsmart L. That's a troublesome thought, but it's true. I think he used to be normal, but he changed once he got this power of his. Something like that would change anyone. The only reason L isn't dead yet is because he doesn't ever reveal his name or his face. Revealing it as he has thus far has probably been a mistake. I think Kira has connections with someone on the team. I don't mean myself," she added, seeing her brother was about to ask out of the corner of her eye. "I mean someone that was there before I was. Someone who doesn't know that they are connected to Kira."

"How?" he asked her. "If anyone has a connection with Kira, they should know it, especially someone on the police force."

"I can't say how," she said. "Kira is someone who is abnormally… _normal_. Perfect student, perfect son or daughter, perfect sibling, perfect family, someone who basically has it made. Kira is someone who no one would ever suspect of being Kira because he knows how to put on a good act for the people that he does know. Now, naturally, if you look at that, he's probably very popular. Popular kids are always the normal ones, if they're popular for good reasons. Everyone at my school knows who I am, but only because I'm a notorious smart ass. Kira is the type of student who would get along with all of his teachers and fellow students without a fuss. He's a murderer, definitely. I'm not praising him at all when I say this, but he probably has a strong sense of justice. He thinks what he's doing is right, which is why he's willing to kill anyone that gets in the way. To Kira, anyone who gets in the way of justice and good _is_ evil. Kira doesn't think he's evil. Kira thinks he is perfectly righteous and that L is the bad guy in all this. To Kira, his fight against L is like a game that he's determined to win, as Kira is definitely a sore loser."

Emi tore a page out of her drawing book and examined it. She dropped the book on top of her bag on the floor and stood up. She walked over to her brother and handed him the drawing. He looked at it.

"If it weren't for the jack-o-lantern head," he said slowly, "then this makes as much sense as what you said about L."

"Don't show it to L," she said.

"But it would take suspicion off of you completely and – hey!"

She had taken the paper back from him. "I'm showing it to him. I need to talk to him about what I do know. I want the rest of the team to stay suspicious about me. Can you do that?"

"Do… what?"

"Be suspicious of whether or not I'm Kira."

"But I don't think you –"

"Then pretend you are," she said. "Just go along with the rest of the team?"

"Why?"

"I can't say."

"I'm not going to unless –"

"You'll probably get killed if you don't. I don't want you to get killed. Just let me handle everything else. I'll find some way to meet with L without the investigation team knowing and I'll tell him what I know. He'll either believe I'm telling the truth or he'll think I'm only telling him 'what I know' to take suspicion away from me."

"You… but…" he sighed. "I'm confused."

She laughed. "Now you sound more like yourself. Just please trust me on this, alright? I want Kira to be caught."

With a sigh, he nodded. "Alright. I'll try, but I still don't think you're Kira. I didn't think L would think you were."

"I think it's more likely he thinks I'm working for Kira," Emi said. "After all, most of what I based this on –" She held up her Kira drawing. "– was just a repetition of his criteria for Kira, which I agree with."

Emi walked back over to her bag. She put her sketchbook and the stray page in it before standing back up. She looked at her brother.

"I'm going to bed. I'm probably also going to need some time to figure out what to do about speaking with L."

She said goodnight and went to her room. Matsuda lay down on the couch with his arms crossed, thinking. She had to know who Kira was. She seemed to know more than anyone who wouldn't have known. Maybe that was what she was going to tell L. But would he believe her if he thought _she_ was Kira? If she had evidence of who Kira was, he didn't see why she just couldn't show the team. Kira wouldn't find out. Then, what she had said about someone on the team knowing Kira personally without knowing that it was Kira that they knew… what was that about? If she didn't mean that she knew Kira personally, then what _did_ she mean? That didn't make any sense at all, unless she was hinting that she was Kira, but she _couldn't_ be Kira. Even if she had the power to kill, she wasn't the type of person who would use it. Maybe she knew someone who _was_ the type of person who would use it to kill criminals, or she knew Kira. That was the only logical explanation… wasn't it? It was quite a headache to think about it. If she knew who Kira was, that put her in extreme danger. There was also something else that was very strange.

On top of everything she seemed to know, her sketched out perception of Kira had looked strangely familiar… all except for the jack-o-lantern head.

* * *

"_Hey, Light_."

"Yeah?"

"_Aren't you and that girl friends?_"

"Basically, yes."

"_Do all humans use their friends like that?_"

"No." Light wrote down a couple names on the black notebook sitting in front of him on his desk. He then used the remote to shut off his television, and he closed the notebook. "She knows I'm Kira and she doesn't agree with it. If I don't threaten her, she'll turn me in. If she knows who Kira is and doesn't support him, she is a major threat to Kira. She doesn't understand that Kira is justice. Whether she's my friend or not, I have to do something, right?"

"_I don't know,_" Ryuk said, biting the core of the apple he'd been eating in half. "_I'm not a human._"

"Then I guess you wouldn't understand," Light said. "Shinigami kill people to live, right?"

"_Yeah._"

"I'm doing this to keep others alive. If she turns me in, I'd be executed myself, and crime rates would go back up, leaving her at fault. So, by using her, I'm doing a good thing. If she brings crime rates back up, she may as well be a criminal, and I wouldn't want one of my friends to be a criminal."

"_So if she doesn't do what you say, you'll kill her, right?_"

"Yes, but she seems too afraid to go against my orders."

"_Even though she's your friend? I didn't think humans killed their friends."_

"That's normally true." Light lifted the false bottom in the top drawer of his computer desk. He slid the notebook under it and let the bottom go back down. "But sometimes, it can't be helped. Anyone who tries to stop Kira will die. Anyway, why are you so full of questions, Ryuk? I normally ask you questions."

"_I don't know. What will happen if she tricks you?_"

"What do you mean?"

"_She's on the team investigating you, right?_"

"Yes, because I told her to get into contact with L."

"_But what if she tells someone on the team that you're Kira?_"

"They wouldn't believe her. Light stood up and walked over to his bed. He lay back on the bed with his hands behind his head. "She's the main suspect now. That means that they won't listen to her if she tries to point someone else out as Kira. They'll think it's just an attempt to divert attention from her onto someone else. Besides, Emi is the type of person who's loyal to her friends. There's not much of a chance of her going against me. From what I can see of her family, she probably doesn't even hold them any higher up than friends. Her father's an unemployed alcoholic and her brother's a complete idiot. So if you think about it, all she has are her friends, and she doesn't have very many of them. That means she's going to try to keep them at all costs."

"_And you'd still kill her?_"

"Only if she proves to be an inefficient spy or a threat to Kira."

_Hmm_, Ryuk thought, looking at Light. _From what he's saying, this 'Emi' person will do anything for a friend, and he'll kill a friend if he doesn't think they're helpful enough. I wonder what will happen if she does go against him. I didn't think most humans could kill a "friend." It would probably be entertaining._

"Ryuk, do you have to stare at me when I'm trying to sleep?"


	5. Withdrawal

_Disclaimer: If I owned Death Note, I wouldn't be writing on a fan fiction site, because I wouldn't be a fan, I'd be the owner, meaning that my fiction would be… ummmm… author fiction. :)_

_So, as I am on a fanfiction website, I obviously do no own anything to do with Death Note._

_I'm sorry for not updating this story in about forever and a year, but I got sidetracked._

_I'm going to get started on this again, though, since I really missed working on it._

* * *

There was no plan that seemed even remotely feasible to Emi as to how she could give L the information on Kira that she had without anyone else knowing. As her sketch had been of Yagami Light – with a giant pumpkin head, of course, as that's what she saw him as at the time – and his father was part of the investigation team, that would have brought suspicion of her higher yet. Despite the fact that she had been instructed to do so by Kira himself, she didn't want to be suspected. No one would want to be suspected as being Kira.

All she could do was attempt to be as helpful in the Kira case as was possible. This meant indirectly giving them the information she knew first-hand about Kira by simply suggesting it as a possibility. Of course, it was possible it wouldn't work. She didn't see any other way to go about things at that time, however.

On her first day actually working for the investigation team, Emi was forced to do paperwork. Of all the things that bored her out of her mind, paperwork seemed to do it best. The whole team had to go through possible suspects, but she wasn't enjoying it in the least bit. The fact that she had been prohibited from smoking around "important documents" didn't help her boredom at all. L's constant and rather noisy fingernail biting wasn't helping at all with her focus problems due to lack of cigarette smoke, so she had started strumming her fingernails on the table loudly to battle the noise. The combined noises caused the rest of the team to grow irritated, making the atmosphere in the room quite a bit more stressed. It also gave everyone else on the team a reason to not be able to focus. Emi decided to make the environment a little more hostile, just for the sake of attempting to irritate L. After all, he had been the one to directly inform her that she couldn't smoke when handling documents. She had managed to refrain from telling him off or punching him, so she had to do _something_.

"Ryuzaki," she said without glancing up from the paper she was looking at, "the twelve FBI Agents that were murdered by Kira. Were they allowed to know who the other agents were?"

"No."

"How could Kira have found out who all of them were, then?"

"They were each emailed a document telling them who they were working with shortly before their deaths. I assume Kira had one person tell him. I also assume you could have already guessed this." Toneless. That annoyed her even more, how he never said anything with any tone to his voice.

"Implying you believe I'm Kira, of course," she said, her voice equally toneless. "I was only wondering, because I would assume that Kira would have come in direct contact with the first person who was sent this document, as he probably instructed that agent to request that it be sent to him, and he probably then sent it to the others. Correct?"

"Yes, that is correct. Raye Penber was the first agent sent the document."

"Then we should be investigating those he was following, not this crap-load of people."

"Raye Penber investigated only two families in the time period between Kira's experiments and the agent's deaths. Kira could be in one of those two families, but Kira could also be someone connected to either of those families, whether through jobs or acquaintances. It is more complicated than it seems."

_That means if Raye Penber was investigating Yagami's family, I'll also be investigated…_ Emi thought to herself. _L would definitely figure out that Light and I go to the same school and are in the same grade fairly fast, meaning suspicions of me would rise…_

"I'm aware of that," Emi said. "However, a good preliminary step would be to keep an eye on those two families first to see if Kira could be anyone within the families, don't you agree?"

"I do agree, but you are treating this case as if it is completely simple. I was only making sure you understood that it isn't."

Strangling him seemed like an appealing idea. Granted, Emi didn't support Kira's actions at all, but L was still getting on her last nerve, and she was short-tempered even with the amount of nicotine she was used to in her system. With such low levels, the idea of strangling quickly turned into one of ripping his head off and throwing it out the window. She refrained from showing anger, not wanting her plan of annoying him to backfire on her.

"Pointless questions do make you seem a more likely suspect."

"There was a point to the questions. I don't know half of anything about the paperwork I'm working on right now due to the fact that I missed the first meeting. Therefore, I need information. What experiments did Kira do?"

"He used six different inmates and manipulated three of their deaths. Not the cause, just the actions they took before. It appears as though he can only kill by heart attack, but he can also manipulate. I am unsure of why three of them acted strangely, while the others acted normally, but I believe it may be because those three were failed experiments whose deaths he could not manipulate for whatever reason."

"What did he make the three who he did succeed with do?"

"One pricked his finger and drew a symbol on the wall – a pentagram, to be specific. Another wrote a suicide note of a very strange nature before dying of a heart attack. A third broke out and went to a nearby restroom, where he was found to have died of heart failure."

"Those all seem probable things," she said slowly. "Perhaps Kira can only manipulate peoples' actions before their deaths to a certain point."

"Meaning?"

"I'll use an example. Let's say he tried with one of the three who died normally… making them to go to the Eifel Tower in Paris and die at a certain time, but he didn't give them enough time to actually break out of prison – it seems he can manipulate the time of death – to go to Paris. Like, he wanted them to go to the Eifel Tower and die in front of it at 8:47 at night, but it was only 8:46 when he made the command. That would be impossible, wouldn't it?"

"That would make sense. He could have made the three suggestions that worked with the knowledge that they were possible to be done, while making three impossible suggestions to the other three. That would mean that he couldn't make someone with no means whatsoever of reaching a gun shoot someone before they died, and they would simply die of a heart attack. However, I wonder how you reached such a conclusion so quickly?"

"I guess I just think quickly. Besides, if I were Kira, do you really think I'd openly tell you about my power?"

"To make me believe that it's less likely that you are Kira, I do think you probably would. I do thank you for the information."

"It isn't officially information unless it's confirmed to be true," Emi said. "It would be considered a theory as of right now."

"Then thank you for sharing your theory."

Emi decided it would be best to give up before her already clenched fist broke L's nose. At least he did know something else about Kira now. That is, if he chose to believe her. As Emi had known about Light's experiments with the inmates, she herself knew that the "theory" was completely true. She had even used an actual example. Light had indeed told one of the inmates to die of a heart attack in front of the Eifel Tower at a time that was impossible for such a thing to happen, so the inmate had simply died of a heart attack. L, however, probably didn't know this. If anything, he suspected she had used that example because it was part of an experiment _she_ had tried with the inmates. In her goal to annoy L, she was sure he suspected her even more. That was something she hadn't thought about before she started asking random questions….

_Is she even aware of how obvious she's being?_ L wondered, glancing at the table she was sitting at. _If she isn't, then she has to be completely stupid, and she definitely isn't completely stupid if she could have figured out as much as she did about me with absolutely no information and only "theories," as she put it. Perhaps she isn't Kira… but with theories like the one she just came up with, it seems more likely she is. Maybe she's connected to Kira in some way, if she can assume this much…_

That was the most likely theory L could think of. However, it seemed unlikely Kira would want any allies. If she did know who Kira was, it would only be logical to think that she would have been dead by now. That was rather strange. Matsuda's wasn't one of the families Penber investigated; his were the Yagami and Kitamura families. The agent who did investigate the Matsuda family reported back that Matsuda Tota did communicate with his younger sister often, but very rarely with his one living parent – his father – who was apparently either mildly abusive or very strict with the sister, which was something that Matsuda wasn't completely aware of. This stood to reason, seeing as he wasn't ever aware of much of anything, so it seemed.

She had only one living parent who she quite obviously doesn't get along with, meaning she doesn't fit the perfect family aspect of L's profile on Kira. She was in the correct age range, but her personality was as far off as could be. She was intelligent, as Kira would be, but she also seemed a bit overly immature at times. She seemed to have only started asking questions in an attempt to annoy him, and it seemed that was also why she had started strumming her fingers so loudly on the table, which she was still doing, which was somewhat annoying….

How she dealt with death wasn't a known factor of the equation. Since she was so reluctant to join the investigation, she probably only brushed Kira's victims away as an everyday occurrence like most people, and probably Kira himself, did at this point. It was fairly confusing. He could observe her more closely with her working on the team, but if she didn't show her real personality, then he couldn't tell anything. Asking Matsuda about it would be pointless, as she was his sister and they appeared to get along well enough, so he would be careful about saying anything incriminating, no matter how idiotic he was.

"Smoke break!"

This sudden exclamation from the table Emi was seated at interrupted L's thoughts, and was followed by the sound of a chair moving across the floor.

"You can take a break as soon as you've finished your share of the work," L said, reading over a document.

"Screw you," she said brightly, taking her lighter out of her pocket. "And I can be rude, because you can't kick me off the team because I'm a suspect that needs to be constantly observed.

She was starting to get a little more annoying now…

She lit the cigarette she was already holding between her middle and index fingers. She was close enough to light his hair on fire, too…. She put the lighter in her pocket, thinking better of it. She would be a little less homicidal after a smoke break, so it would probably be best to decide whether or not to set anyone on fire after that.

"Then you have five minutes."

"I don't know you you're talking to," she said to L, "but I have as long as I want."

In return for this, Emi was given a cold silence. She imagined that the look on L's face was probably one that reflected he would also like to decapitate her. She had found the perfect way to annoy him, then: contradict his authority over the Kira investigation. She laughed at this. She made sure to laugh loud enough for L to hear her, taking any opportunity she could to get on his nerves with the knowledge that she couldn't be kicked off of the team. If she was going practically forced to stay on the team, then she _would_ get her retribution.

"What?" L said impatiently.

"Nothing," she said. "Just realized something is all."

"What?"

"Nothing important," she said innocently. "If it doesn't have to do with the Kira case, there's no point in saying anything about it."

"I suppose that is true."

"Yes. It is."

At the table Emi had moved away from, Usata looked at Matsuda.

"Think he's regretting asking her to come to the team yet?" he asked Matsuda quietly.

"Probably," he said. "I did warn everyone that forcing onto the team would just make her mad, right?"

"Yeah, but L's too stubborn to listen to anyone."

* * *

"Ugh!"

With one last frustrated noise for the day, Emi fell onto the recliner chair once at her brother's house. She quickly pulled her pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and took one out.

"That ass-face doesn't seem to realize what lack of nicotine with an added side of paperwork can do to a nicotine addict," she said with a sigh.

"I think he knows now."

She looked at her brother. "Why do you say that?"

"The rest of the team now has knowledge of what it can do." He laughed. "I'm the only person on the team who's even come close to getting Ryuzaki that mad, and that wasn't even intentional."

"I'm just talented," she said. "Next time you want to though, just refuse to do what he says. He has some major issues with people not heeding his authoritarian ways."

"Well, if any of us refuse to follow his orders, we can get kicked off the team. His suspicion actually creates a benefit for you there."

"No it doesn't…" Emi looked up at the ceiling, crossing her legs. "I _want_ out, so that's just another disadvantage…. He might suspect me a little more now, you know."

"Yeah, you were a little… uhh… I'd say obvious, but that would only make sense if you actually were Kira."

"Well, it wasn't intentional…" she said. "I was just out to annoy him. I don't think straight without nicotine. That dumbass needs to learn that. I came this close – _this close!_" She held her thumb and index finger a couple millimeters apart, her hand shaking with her anger at the memory. "– to setting that bastard's hair on fire because of that. It's complete madness. Either let me smoke around the papers or don't make me do paperwork, it's pretty simple if he wants to keep his last ounce of sanity.

"Did he make any mention of what families Penber had been investigating?" she asked curiously.

"No. He never told the team how many before, either."

"I imagine we'll know soon," she said. "I wonder if I was followed at any point in time, if families were being investigated. I never noticed. I think that's pretty strange."

"I didn't either," he said. "It was the FBI, you know? You're not supposed to know when they're following you."

"Well, Kira obviously did." She laughed. "Considering how paranoid I am, that means he has to be really paranoid, you know? Paranoia can make a person see more suspi – phone." She took her ringing cell phone from her pocket and looked at the caller ID. "Hmm. Untraceable. Be right back."

Emi, rather confused at the call coming in, stood up and walked to her room. She shut the door behind her and flipped open her phone as she walked to her bed.

"Yes?"

An electronic voice replied.

"_This is Kira_."

Light? No, definitely not. It couldn't have been Light, he knew that Emi was smart enough to delete the memory from her phone when she called him or when he called her, so there was no point in worrying about calling from an untraceable number. She had a feeling she knew what this was, and it definitely wasn't going to work. L wasn't going to confuse her into giving him any really important information that would get her killed. This was, however, the perfect opportunity to give him the information she actually _could_ give him.

"_I'm aware you know information about me that you shouldn't._"

"'Zat so?"

L had somewhat expected this reaction. Her airy tone didn't reflect an ounce of fear at the fact that she was speaking on the phone with Kira. However, there was a chance she knew it wasn't Kira. If she knew it wasn't Kira, then that meant she would immediately suspect him. Then she would be backed into a corner, as she couldn't know she wasn't speaking to Kira now if she had never spoken to Kira before.

"_Yes. I suggest you listen_."

"Wait a moment," she said, sounding amused. "This must mean that the newspapers are right, eh?"

"_In what way?_"

"Well, in the way that you really do have a second personality that is actually Kira. I thought you would have heard about that by now, L. That rumor's been around since the start of the Kira case."

Perfect. A direct address that indicated that she knew exactly what was going on. However, Emi wasn't dumb. She had to have a reason for allowing L to know that she was sure she wasn't talking to Kira so early.

"_You have just revealed to me that you know you are not talking to Kira, despite the fact that I was using a voice filter different from the one I used on my broadcast with Lind L. Taylor,_" L said. "_This is very good. For me, at least._"

"Oh?" Emi laughed. "How so?"

"_First, you answer this question: How did you know you weren't talking to Kira?_"

"Because I've spoken with Kira before."

Emi would make sure that outsmarting her would be an impossible job. Her admitting to something so important would be the last thing he would expect, she was sure of that.


	6. Sixteen Years

_Furbleburb biznotches!!_

_That's so gonna be my senior motto when I graduate high school._

_Blarg. _

_Nonsense words are so effing awersomely-coolo._

_Yeah. Anywhozles. I'm kinda hyper, so bear with me here. I'll try to write a remotely sensible disclaimer that will prevent my ass from getting thrown in jail under issues with copyright, but I can't guarentee it'll work too well._

_Disc-clay-moor – If I owned anything as freaking awesome as the __**Death Note**__ manga/anime (or if I even owned a Death Note, for that matter), I'd be too busy swimming in a pool filled with money to write fanfics :) _

_I also don't own torsopants"dot"com or their awesome "FURBLEBURB BIZNOTCHES" shirt. _

_You should check out that site, though, if you have the same slower-than-a-herd-of-turtles-stampeding-through-peanut-butter sense of humor as me._

_Okaaaaay, that should be a good enough disco-clammer, right? Good. Cause I don't like disco._

_My next update is either going to be __**King's Note**__ or __**Justice Never Dies**__._

* * *

L nearly dropped his phone; that hadn't been something he had expected at all. She openly admitted to having spoken with Kira. That seemed to be a completely rash statement. L bit his thumbnail. Emi was definitely the type of person who would make reckless moves, but with something as important as this, she would have been a little bit smarter. _Anyone_ would have. Obviously, she had to have a reason for telling him she had spoken to Kira. What reason could that be? If Kira knew what she had just said, she would be killed. So this couldn't have simply been a rash move, she was too smart to make a move so rash without any reason.

"_You admit to this?_"

"Yeah."

"_Why?_"

"Because it's the information that you were looking for, wasn't it? I'm not stupid. I wasn't about to jump through hoops just so you could assume I had spoken with Kira in the end, anyway. I might as well just go on ahead and admit to what you would have concluded, right?"

"_It would be the most reasonable thing to do if you're Kira. Otherwise, it would could just get you killed by him._"

"Touché," Emi said. He could almost see the sarcastic grin she definitely had on her face. "If we start this argument, though, you'll just get more frustrated. So, let's assume for a moment that I have spoken to Kira. Will this give me the opportunity to be allowed to leave the investigation team?"

"_No._"

"Damn…. Alright. Then assume whatever you like, seeing as it won't benefit me either way…"

"_I do hope you are aware this is a serious situation_."

"Of course I'm not," she said sarcastically. "Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"_If it runs in your family, then it is presumable._"

Emi squeezed her cell phone, resulting in a tremendous amount of static. She would have strangled him through the phone if she could have. _She_ was the only person aloud to call _her_ brother an idiot.

"If you imply that my brother is an idiot again, then the team'll really start suspecting I'm Kira. Because I'll kill you."

"_Without my real name?_"

"I don't _need_ your real name to tear your head off of your shoulders," she said in a dangerously spirited voice.

L flinched slightly, trying to shake the image of being decapitated out of his head. Emi almost seemed too brutal to be Kira – too obviously brutal, at the least. Kira was brutal – in a more mental than physical sense – but if confronted directly, he would never let on that he was. She didn't seem to care, and was obviously the type of person who joked about violent death. Well, _hopefully_ it was a joke.

"_I will refrain from offending your family, then. However, this __**is**__ a serious situation._"

"Seeing as my life is directly in danger, I'm completely aware of that," she said. "I should probably tell you as much as I know. There are some things I can't tell you, however, as I value my life and I definitely don't want Kira to kill my brother as blackmail against me."

It couldn't be that easy. She was going to tell him what she knew about Kira that quickly? L searched his head for a reason, and quickly came to the conclusion that she could be trying to trick him. He would listen to what she told him and then decide.

"_That is fine_."

"Now, naturally, it's your choice whether you believe this or not. This is one hundred percent truthful, and if you don't believe me, it's not my problem. First off, I am not Kira. I know that for a fact, because I know who Kira is."

"_Personally?_"

"No," she lied. Light _would_ kill her if she admitted to that. Besides, it was unlikely L would believe her anyway. "Second, the 'theory' I told you was completely true. The one about Kira being able to manipulate death only to a certain point. It is also true that he needs a name _and_ a face to kill, but he has the power to make it so he doesn't need a name.

"Your assumption that Kira can't manipulate the actual cause of death is very ignorant, just to let you know, because he can and he has to get information he needed or to keep people from spilling information to faceless people with letters for names. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about."

"_I have a question._"

"Yes?"

"_Do you know if Kira had anything to do with the fate of Misora Naomi?_"

"He didn't have anything to do with it," she said, laughing. "He had _everything_ to do with it."

"_He can manipulate cause and situation, which means we could never find her._"

"Kira isn't always smart," she said. "For instance, he trusts that I won't spill anything to those I'm working for. He tells me about important kills. Naomi Misora, for instance. He tricked her into getting her name by telling her that he was part of the investigation team using evidence he had based on ties with certain people who will note be named. She wanted to be a part of the team, so he said he needed her ID to confirm her identity, and he got her name. He made her go to a secluded area that only she knew about and kill herself."

_Then she did kill herself_, L thought, _but not of her own will. Judging by Kira's "trust" in her, Emi either knows Kira personally or is Kira._

"Then there was the incident with Penber."

L paused, leaving a piece of cake at the end of a fork hanging in midair with his arm. What she had just said… "incident" with Penber? That sounded like something they had most definitely missed in the case. She couldn't have just been talking about the train he had boarded, as it was obvious that the investigation team already knew about that. That meant she definitely knew something that they didn't know….

"Penber was following Kira. Kira used a criminal in a bus hi-jacking to trick Penber into showing his ID. This gave Kira information that he was in the FBI. I can't really give you any details other than that, except that I was there to divert suspicion, he made me ask to see the badge and threatened to kill me if I gave him an incorrect name. Not in front of Penber, obviously, he had just planned it out that way, so I would seem more likely to be Kira if it was every traced back. Kira wasn't on the bus, but he made sure I wore a bug so he would know I did everything like I was supposed to."

"_Has he been getting his information from the person on the team that he is connected to?_"

"Indirectly, yes. The person he is connected with doesn't know that he is connected with Kira, however, or that Kira is getting information from him. I can't elaborate on that, as you would then most likely know who it is."

"_Your inability to elaborate on so many details is making this even less helpful than if you hadn't said anything. It is helping me understand more, but it isn't helping you out of suspicion._"

"I'm risking my ass enough by being on the investigation team, I'm not about to start telling Kira's secrets. There isn't much of anything I can tell you if you're going to be a baby about not being able to have _all_ the information."

"_I can understand that you would rather remain on the suspects list than to be killed yourself._"

"I'm only a suspect because Kira made me incriminate myself on purpose. He said it would be best to do so particularly with L and my brother, as loosing both the trust of the lead investigator and my own family would make me seem an even more likely suspect and make everyone more willing to arrest me if the time comes."

"_How many of our names does he know?_"

"Two. Me and my brother."

"_That means that the person he is connected with is your brother. If he only knows one person who is on the police force, then it isn't possible for it to be any other way._"

"_Fine_," Emi said, irritated. "He knows one other person. I can't say who."

"_Has he given you any orders?_"

"To get close to the investigation team. I think he knew my brother was part of it before I knew. Then his next order was one that's about impossible that he wants me to try to do anything."

"_Yes?_"

"Try to get your name."

"_You're correct in thinking that it would be impossible_."

She laughed. "Looks like I'm dead, then."

* * *

"Dammit!"

Light was growing extremely impatient with the busy tone he was getting when he called Emi's number. Ryuk seemed to find it utterly _hysterical_, as he hadn't stopped laughing since the second time Light had attempted to call her. As Emi's cell phone was one of the cheapest and the worst that money could buy, it didn't have call waiting, meaning that he would be stuck calling her over and over until she gave up on whoever she was talking to at that time. That was terribly annoying. If he didn't check her progress with getting L's name, then he wouldn't know what she was doing, so this was important. If she hadn't started working on it at least a little on her first day, then that was going to serve as a problem. She could be extremely aggressive with people that annoyed her, and if L had done anything to irritate her, then she definitely hadn't tried to get his name.

"_Light_," Ryuk said, "_wouldn't it be easier to wait for a while?_"

"No," Light said stubbornly. More laughing as Light redialed the number for what had to be the tenth time. "Finally…"

She answered after only a ring.

"Yes?"

"First of all, were you on the phone with anyone from the investigation?"

"No," she lied immediately.

It was a little too immediately. As she and Light had known each other since they were both about three feet tall, lying was no use. He could tell.

"Then who was it?" he asked.

"L."

"Have you started trying to get his name?"

"Y-yes…"

"That sounds more like a no."

She was silent for a few moments. "He enforced a no smoking rule and I couldn't focus well enough to…" she said quietly. "If I'd tried, it would have been a little too obvious at that time…"

"I instructed you to be obvious," Light said, sounding impatiently. She heard a malevolent cackle in the background, and she remembered that creature that followed Light everywhere now. "Are you –?"

"It's not that!" she said quickly. Dying wasn't a very appealing idea. "Not at all. If I'm _too_ obvious, L will begin to suspect that I'm working for someone who told me to be obvious. I have to be discreetly obvious for it to work right."

"Ryuk, shut up," she heard Light say under his breath to the still-laughing spook. She him say something about apples, and Light replied with, "In a minute!"

Emi couldn't help but laugh a little, so she held the phone away from her for a moment. At least he had _something_ to make him slightly miserable. She put the phone back to her ear.

"… was being a nuisance – yes, you were – so sorry about that," Light was saying. "I expect you to start attempting to get L's name soon. Even though you just lied twice a minute ago, I still trust that you'll do as you're told."

"I will…"

"You'd better."

"I _will_," she said. "We've known each other for sixteen – _nearly_ seventeen years now. I'm not going to go against you. We _are_ friends, you know."

Pulling the _we're-friends_ card was the only trick that Emi really had left she could use. She was glad she had that much going for her. Because Light did indeed trust her more than he trusted his own family or any of his other friends, she was safe using that for now. He still looked at her as a friend, and she was fairly sure he believed that she still saw him as a friend, despite what he was doing. She definitely didn't, but she could still believably tell him that she wouldn't go against his orders not because she was afraid for her life, but because they were friends. The best part was, he believed it.

"Yeah," he said. "Listen, I…"

For a moment, he sounded like himself again, not Kira. There was still a part of him left that was good, but the part of him that knew justice from crime was gone entirely. Emi felt a twinge of guilt for lying, but she could live through it.

"Never mind," he said. "Just get L's name."

The other line went dead. Emi shut her own phone and stared at it for a few minutes. Light had been her friend for years. Despite the fact that he was a murderer, she should have supported his intentions. That was what friends were for, right? Of course, they were also supposed to listen. When Emi had told Light what she truly thought of the Kira case, listening wasn't important. He just told her he'd kill her if she didn't support Kira, not for the simple fact that she didn't support Kira, but because she knew who Kira was. She was a danger to Kira. Friends didn't matter when it came to purging the world of the bad and leaving only the good of heart, of course. It was more than those that weren't pure of heart that had to die anymore, it was anyone who got in Kira's way. His intentions had started out as noble as a murderer's intentions could be, but they were turning on him in his hunger for power.

Emi shook her head and threw her cell phone to the other side of the room. Kira was a murderer. Light wasn't a murderer. If L knew about who Kira was, he would assume that Yagami Light was Kira, but that wasn't how it was. It was more along the lines that Kira was – meaning had been at one time – Yagami Light. If he would just get rid of that stupid notebook of his and loose his memory of the whole ordeal, she could have her old friend back, her _only_ real friend. She glared at her cell phone on the other side of the room for no particular reason before carefully opening her door a crack to glance into the living room. She laughed to herself a little when she heard snoring, and she shut her door. Maybe her brother would forget about the unidentified caller by morning and not pester her about it too much.

Lying down in her bed, Emi glanced at the clock ticking away on the wall. It was after midnight and she wasn't tired. It didn't matter. She was going to be working late every day except school days now, and considering she was out of school on winter holidays for the week, she would basically be working nonstop for a while. That was a somewhat frustrating thought. She knew she would also have to work after school and on weekends. It wasn't like it was going to alter her social life at all, though, considering she didn't particularly _have_ a social life. There was no danger at all of her becoming any less popular, since Light was her only "friend."

––

"Would you stop doing that?"

"_Eh?_"

"The laughing. Cut it out. I'm trying to think."

"_I know_."

Light turned around his computer chair and glared at the Shinigami. It only made him laugh more. He had been laughing since Light spoke to Emi on the phone. What in the world was he laughing _at_? He was almost always laughing about something, but this laugh was different. He wasn't laughing about something, he was laughing at something. Considering Light still wasn't entirely knowledgeable about Shinigami, one idea was lingering in his mind about why Ryuk might be laughing so much.

"Can Shinigami read minds?"

"_What? No. Human imagination?_"

"No," Light said, rolling his eyes as he turned his chair back around. "You said you knew I was trying to think, and then you laughed harder. I was just trying to figure out why."

"_You'll figure it out eventually_," Ryuk said.

Light glanced over his shoulder. "I'll give you an apple if you tell me."

Ryuk seemed to think about this for a moment. "_Then go get me an apple._"

"It's too late, I'd have to get it tomorrow."

"_I'm already getting one tomorrow for shutting up while you were on the phone_."

"Then I'll buy you five tomorrow."

"_I'll tell you after you get them._"

Light looked back at his television, deciding it would probably be best to ignore Ryuk's laughter. It usually didn't bother him so much, but there was just something more sinister about it this time. He didn't like that at all. Ryuk couldn't have been planning to kill him, right…? No, that seemed pretty ridiculous. Ryuk was happy as long as he had apples and something to laugh at. That was just his personality. Even though Ryuk said he couldn't read minds, Light had a feeling Ryuk knew what he was thinking. Probably not exactly what he was thinking, but just enough to be extremely amused.

Light was mostly wondering if his friend was really trustworthy enough to keep everything he had told her from L. She had been there when he found the Death Note, she'd been there when he wrote the first and the second name in it, and she had touched the Death Note herself. That meant she could see Ryuk, of course, but it also meant that she knew more about Kira than anyone. That was horribly risky, but he was afraid that something Ryuk had said the night before was right. Maybe he cared too much about their friendship to kill her.

Light looked at Ryuk as his laughter grew a little louder.

_I'm going to throw my pen at him if he doesn't shut up_…

Light turned back to his desk and wrote down a name in the black notebook that lay open upon it. He glanced back at the television and waited forty seconds. The convict in the back of the police car on the live footage on the news died after about forty seconds, even though that was the last thing on his mind, really. He flicked off the television and shut the Death Note and walked over to his bed. He lay down, thinking. If he couldn't trust Emi, he would _have_ to kill her without worrying about friendships. One friend couldn't matter more than the state of the world. It was impossible. It still seemed like it would be a hard task if it came down to it. It hadn't yet, however. There was no need worrying unless it did come down to that.

* * *

_Furbleburb is my new favorite word. And so is biznotches._

_Please R&R!!_

_I'm really grateful for all the activity my stories have been getting lately._

_You people are all so awesomely-cool!_

_-hugs-_

_THANKYOOOOOOOO!_


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